Tohu and Artist-Run Centres in Montreal: Contributions to the Creative city?/Tohu et Des Centres D'artistes Autogeres a Montreal : Contributions a la Ville Creative

Abstracts The present article focuses on two cases illustrating the role of territory and the creative city. The first case is Tohu, in Montreal, which is an example of culture-driven urban revitalization based on a model similar to the 'proactive cultural district'. The second case involves the artist-run centres in Montreal--in particular Edifice Belgo--, which are considered to be a "creation factory" as well as an example of a clustering of artistic activities. Our goal was to examine two cases in Montreal in order to determine to what extent cultural or creative dimensions can effectively contribute to the development of the so-called creative city. Resumes >. Notre texte s'interesse au theme de la classe creative, de la cite creative et des districts culturels. Dans le present article, nous nous penchons sur deux cas qui peuvent illustrer le role du territoire et de la cite creative. Apres une breve revue de la problematique et des concepts, nous nous interessons d'abord a la Tohu, a Montreal, comme exemple de revitalisation urbaine fondee sur la culture selon un modele qui s'apparente au >. Puis, nous analysons les centres d'artistes autogeres, en particulier l'edifice Belgo, que nous considerons comme > autant que comme cas de > d'activites artistiques localisees dans le secteur du Quartier des Spectacles a Montreal. Nous avons voulu etudier deux cas a Montreal qui semblent bien cadrer avec les theses de la cite creative pour tenter de voir dans quelle mesure les dimensions culturelles ou creatives peuvent effectivement contribuer au developpement de la cite creative. Introduction In the context of an economy based on knowledge and symbolism, researchers are increasingly interested in the "creative society" and the essential role of creativity as a major resource for professional and recreational activities. It is postulated that creativity plays a fundamental role in economic and social growth since it "allows a competitive edge to be gained by organizations as well as for the development of new social forms and entry into a social process of knowledge accumulation" (Sacco 2003; Tremblay and Tremblay 2006). (1) Since the theoretical debate on the themes of the creative class, the creative city and cultural districts has already been examined in another article (Pilati and Tremblay 2007 forthcoming), it will hot be repeated here. The present article will focus on two cases illustrating the role of territory and the creative city. The first case is Tohu, in Montreal, which is an example of culture-driven urban revitalization based on a model similar to the "proactive cultural district'" (Sacco and Ferilli 2006). The second case involves the artist-run centres in Montreal--in particular Edifice Belgo--, which are considered to be a "creation factory" as well as an example of a clustering of artistic activities, located in the city's Quartier des Spectacles. Our goal was to examine two cases in Montreal in order to determine to what extent cultural or creative dimensions can effectively contribute to the development of the socalled creative city. This research is not based on a deductive process because it would be difficult to test a specific hypothesis in this area, but rather on an inductive process, by examining these case studies in depth in order to further develop the theories which have been put forward on the theme of the creative city. However, a few words on the concept of the creative city are in order and thus, a brief literature review will be presented. Literature Review The concept of the creative city was developed in the early 1960s by urban critic and sociologist Jane Jacobs. (2) She was the first person to talk about "creative cities" in her book Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1985), i. …